http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/10/24/how-job-sharing-may-be-the-secret-to-work-life-balance/

While job sharing isn’t for everyone, if both job sharers are willing and able to invest in the communication, trust and accountability that makes it work, it really works and is a win/win for all…

At the end of this work, the leader wanted to look back on what came out of it – what parts of the culture really changed and what they wanted to hold onto as they moved into the future.

Through a series of interviews with a variety of internal stakeholders Betsy and I asked, “What is different now that strategic planning is done?”

One theme that was loud and clear was the movement away from a family to a team approach. As one staff person said, “Moving away from the traditional family environment to a team is very important to me. It’s great to have a family environment where everyone cares about you, but you can do that as a team as well. Whether you like it or not, we’re a business and need to function that way.”

Another person we interviewed put it this way, “We’re taking a team approach vs. a family – this leads to more honest communication. With family, people are afraid to share constructive feedback.”  

What’s the impact your organization wants to make?  You’re going to need a strong team to get you there – one where people can communicate honestly and directly, regardless of their role. In families, it takes a long time for us to move beyond being just a dad or just a big sister. Luckily, in organizations it can just take a few focused months.  By deliberately inviting people from different levels of the organization to be involved in your strategic planning, you’re off to a good start for thinking and acting like a team.

-Maggie

Five years ago the town of Carrboro, http://www.ci.carrboro.nc.us,  was splintered – departments were functioning
but as silos with little sense of the whole organization. Employees felt
overworked and beleaguered; they resented other departments, took little pride
in the overall mission of the town and were skeptical about a project that many
believed might be just a passing fancy.
It took a strong, clear leader, Steve Stewart, the town manager, to call for change and
ultimately overcome resistance. The Mulberry Partners (then Mulberry Tree Consulting), www.themulberrypartners.com, were hired to design and
lead a process for creating a cohesive organization and worked closely with the
manager and employees across the organization to facilitate it. We started by
hearing stories from the employees in each department, creating an actual
puzzle that made sense of the whole and developing a cross-representational
leadership committee made up emerging leaders (vs. the usual suspects) who
worked with us to steer the project.  By design, with each year, our involvement in the project decreased as town employees
took increasingly significant responsibilities for sustaining its success.

The project, named Better Together by employees, now aptly describes the culture of
the town where resources are shared and communication is transparent. More than
7o% of the town’s employees are actively engaged in furthering the culture via
appointment to the leadership team, involvement in strategy groups and/or participation
in the town’s many Better Together programs and activities.

Five years after the start of this culture change, town employees were asked to
share their insights about  creating a ”Better Together” culture with town and city leaders attending  the North Carolina City and County Managers
Association Conference (http://207.56.202.158/infoexchange/conferences.asp)  As Maggie and I worked with a team of cross-departmental
employees to prepare and deliver the presentation, we had the privilege of experiencing,
anew, the staying power of employees’ pride in their organizational culture and
the job satisfaction resulting from being “Better Together.  As employees on the panel enthusiastically
shared their strategies for creating a “Better Together Culture” with other
municipal leaders in North Carolina, we basked in the joy of knowing we’d helped bring collaboration to life in ways that were making positive, lasting
differences for employees throughout the town.  We had played key roles in leading the way to
a culture where communication flows, resources are effectively managed, ideas
are heard, progress is sustained, people at all levels are invested in
achieving goals, leadership is clear and cross-organizational collaboration across
all levels is the norm.

This Friday Steve Stewart will celebrate his retirement. Amid plans for a festive, lively lunch and long goodbyes, Steve has made clear his commitment to keeping this Better Together culture alive. He has written several emails to town leaders directly encouraging them to make sure that sustaining this culture is a centerpiece in their search for a new town manager.  It took strong clear leadership to make Better Together happen — now, may it have the shared commitment it needs to stay alive and growing.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-strategy/want-to-be-a -superstar-find-a-partner/1597

I imagine we’ve all had experiences where we’ve been on a team that didn’t quite meet the mark — that allowed ineffective dynamics to affect productivity. Kudos to anyone who decides to work on it and knows it can be better!

That’s what this group did. They dove in. Betsy and I facilitated them through a strategic planning process where their vision took root and grew.

Once their vision was clear, they turned to action planning. We encouraged them to keep it simple and they identified 3 goals to mobilize their efforts.  For each goal they identified actions that would have an impact and were manageable. Here’s a sample of the grid we helped them develop:

At our follow up meeting last week we added another column to the grid : Status update.

The board agreed to make the action plan a living document and use it to keep them focused at their meetings, determine who’s going to do what and gauge their progress toward their goals.

Though our official work is over, we will continue to check in with them periodically to hear how the implementation is going, what’s getting in the way and troubleshoot any bumps in the road. We’re now invested in their success and want to see all the hard work pay off.

                                                                                                                                                                          -          Maggie

Then we took a good long hard look at our website and realized we’d outgrown it. It didn’t reflect the kinds of consultants we’d become and the kinds of results we achieve. Truth was we needed a brand new website, one that made our work crystal clear.

But figuring that out and boiling it down to website worthy-copy wasn’t easy, at all. It took many conversations between us and with our friend and marketing guru, Sue Egnoto who helped us clarify just what it was we did well and then helped us put it all in concrete language.

It was hard. Really hard. And it was made harder by the fact we felt like after 7 years of working together and building our company we thought it should be easy.

What we realized was when you’re up to your elbows in doing the work, you’re too close for that kind of self-description. Sure, we could talk about our work – but boiling it down to what really mattered was a whole other thing.

After hours spent thinking and talking with Sue, with each other and with our clients, the common denominators of our work became clearer — we build trust, increase communication, Increase collaboration, unleash ideas for community-minded leaders, educators, health leaders like you.

Of course, as anyone who has ever redecorated anything knows:  Fix the kitchen and the living room begins to look drab.  The more digging we did, the clearer it became that we’d outgrown more than our website … we’d also outgrown our name.

Here we were helping our clients collaborate via strategic planning, culture change, leadership development, team building, coaching.  Here we were writing a book about the benefits partners get from working together. And nothing in our name reflected collaboration or partnership.

So, after months of brainstorming names, dreaming of names, calling each other at odd hours with new names, the most obvious, most perfect name of all finally hit us: Mulberry Partners.

Here we are 18 months later. What started with one small change has led us to a new logo, a new look, a new website and a brand new name. What’s even more important – we’ve gained a clearer sense of who we are and the results we can help you achieve. Yeh, it was painful, sometimes. Important processes usually are.  

And it was worth it. We hope you feel the same.

-          Betsy and Maggie

As I whirl around, grasping hands, it hits me that as basic as this movement is, it is precious. Inclusion like this is hard to come by when the music is off and we remember ourselves, our fears, our assumptions. I think about the organizations I know where bringing many voices to the table can be struggle, a wrench thrown into the culture , and yet, the results are so much greater, the investment in achieving results much richer when room is made for new perspectives to be heard.

There’s another important part to this dance. The leader rises above, literally. The circle contains the bride, the groom, the Bat Mitzvah girl or Bar Mitzvah boy raised high above the dancers in a chair supported by those who step forward to safely elevate the leader above the rest. So, there is no question of who is in charge, she or he is looming above. We all know our roles here. The dancer, the lifter, the leader. It’s easier, safer to move forward when the leader is also taking the risk (you try sitting in that chair, it’s kind of scary) and is just as engaged in the process. Getting involved is less precarious when we know what our role is, what is expected of us. And the motivation is greater when we know what kinds of opportunities exist to advance and make a difference — feeling strong? Grab a chair leg and lift the leader!

There we are, a circle of dancers, lifters, a leader, everyone included, everyone sweating together to bring it to life. The Hora lasts for only 15 minutes; may its lessons last a lifetime.

Betsy, April 1

That’s where the brainstorming came in.  After talking generally for a few minutes, Betsy jumped up with a marker and we started letting ideas fly.  “What could this event look like?”  In no time at all, we had a list of 50 ideas for what the day could be and we were all getting excited in spite of whatever doubts we had going in.  By the end of the meeting one person said, “I really hope this happens because I’d be disappointed if we didn’t get to do these things.” 

It’s amazing how we surprise ourselves when we allow ideas to happen. So many times we get stuck in the “shoulds” and feel bogged down and enervated. 

In his book, The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley writes “The buzz of a good brainstormer can infect a team with optimism and a sense of opportunity that can carry it through the darkest and most pressure-tinged stages of a project.”  It can also open up ideas we didn’t know we had because we weren’t giving ourselves persmission to have them. 

Here’s to new ideas, optimism and energy.  Three good things to cultivate in this early spring!

- Maggie

I ache for those afternoons and that very sensation until the next weekend when I try on used skates and take them for a test drive with Annie, my eight year old daughter, as my coach. Turns out the skates are brake-less and I fall once, twice. But Annie stands by me (well, really right in front of me — keeping me steady.) I’m awkward and clumsy but still, the feeling is there, that old anything is possible pulse in the pit of my stomach. As I stand and wobble, clinging to Annie as well as to any available tree, sign or wall, it hits me that I’ve traded in my usual grown up “I’ve got it all together, no worries about me” for a self that’s more raw, less polished, vulnerable and much more fun. Though I  probably won’t wear skates to a client meeting (unless, a client asks really, really nicely) I’m going to do my best to hold fast to this feeling, the freedom of imperfection.

As I grow more confident, I cling to Annie less, doing my best to skate alongside her. “Mommy, do you know everyone is looking at you?” Annie whispers out of the corner of her mouth. “Of course they are. It’s not everyday they get to see how good possibility feels,” I tell her as we zip by leaving only fresh air and longings behind.

To provide intensive instruction in a supportive environment designed to improve communication skills and therefore quality of life for children with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families.